A Good Day

Yesterday was good day. I must admit that it seemed a bit like I spent most of it “goofing off,” but maybe that’s why I thought it was a good day! The elders had the responsibility for most of the service yesterday morning as they presented their vision for our Denbigh church family. I did the call to worship, the closing blessing and the communion devotional, so I wasn’t exactly goofing off, but the “pressure” was all on them. Bob Bean did a wonderful job presenting the vision statement, and all the elders led us closer to God as they led us in prayer. If you missed the presentation, you can read their vision statement here.

I goofed off again last night as our guest speaker was Rick Atchley of the Richland Hills church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. OK, so we really watched Rick on a DVD, but it was great nonetheless. It get an email bulletin called “Reflections” every week or so from Al Maxey, a preacher in Alamogordo, New Mexico. If you haven’t seen any of Al’s “Reflections” articles, you need to check out his web site. Al fell all over himself recommending a sermon by Rick Atchley entitled “Learning Division” as both an explanation and response to some of our struggles for unity and with disunity over the years. So I decided to invest $5… and it was the best $5 I’ve ever spent! If you weren’t able to be here Sunday night, you need to get this DVD. You can borrow the one from here (I’m waiting to hear from Richland Hills if it’s OK to make copies) or order straight from Richland Hills.

Is it possible for us to remain faithful to our Church of Christ heritage while at the same time pursuing and promoting unity among all believers in Christ? Can we maintain a firm grasp on who we are and have been as a distinct people while at the same time reaching out to fellowship others who also stand at the foot of the cross who have not stood in our specific camp? I think both our elder’s vision statement and Rick’s sermon last night showed us that this is indeed possible. Of course, the old saying is “the devil is always in the details.” But we need to see that in reality, the devil is really ignoring the call to unity even though the details at times can get messy!